Al Cook De Beers CEO: Strategy, Origins, and the 2026 Sale
Al Cook became De Beers CEO in February 2023. Three years later: $6.8 billion in writedowns, Lightbox shut down, Forevermark pulled from the US, and a sale process with no confirmed buyer. This is a complete profile of the man running the world's most complicated job in diamonds.
When The New York Times asked De Beers CEO Al Cook whether Lightbox achieved its strategic goals, he answered: "Kind of." That two-word answer, given while shutting down a brand that cost $90 million to build and lost $101 million in a single year, tells you more about Al Cook than any official biography.
Who Is Al Cook
Alfred Randolph Cook, known as Al Cook, is the Chief Executive Officer of De Beers Group. He was appointed in February 2023, becoming the first De Beers CEO to come from the oil and gas sector rather than the mining or diamond trade. He is a geologist by training, holding an MA in Natural Sciences from Cambridge University. He is 51 years old as of 2026.
Cook was handed the hardest job in the diamond industry at the worst possible moment. Lab-grown diamond wholesale prices had already begun their 74% collapse. Anglo American, De Beers' majority shareholder, was under pressure from activist investors and preparing a portfolio restructuring. Natural diamond rough prices were declining. De Beers had just launched Lightbox, a lab-grown brand, and was watching it fail to do what it was designed to do. Cook inherited all of it on day one.
Before De Beers: BP and Equinor
Cook spent approximately 20 years at BP in various exploration and production roles across multiple continents. He then moved to Equinor, the Norwegian state energy company, where he led exploration and production for seven years, overseeing operations across three continents including significant North Sea assets.
His background is worth understanding because it shaped how he approached De Beers. Oil and gas executives are trained to think about commodity cycles, capital allocation at scale, and the management of assets whose value is determined by forces entirely outside the company's control. Diamonds, particularly natural diamonds, are a different kind of commodity: one whose value is partly manufactured through marketing rather than purely through scarcity. Cook's oil and gas framework may be both his greatest asset and his most significant limitation in the diamond industry.
In oil and gas, when prices fall, you cut costs, defer capital, and wait for the cycle to turn. The commodity recovers because the world structurally needs oil. The De Beers situation is different. Natural diamond demand is not guaranteed by structural necessity. It is sustained by cultural meaning that marketing constructed over decades. Cook's restructuring instincts are correct for a commodity business. Whether they are correct for a marketing-dependent luxury product is the open question his tenure will answer.
The First Year: Assessment Before Action
Cook's first year at De Beers was largely an assessment period. He did not make large strategic announcements immediately. He traveled to De Beers' mining operations in Botswana, Namibia, and South Africa. He sat for trade press interviews at JCK Las Vegas 2023. He gave on the record comments that were, by diamond industry CEO standards, unusually candid.
By late 2023, it was clear that Cook had concluded several things. Lightbox was not commercially viable and was not achieving its strategic objectives at an acceptable cost. The Forevermark brand, De Beers' premium natural diamond program, needed to be concentrated in markets where it had traction rather than spread thin across multiple regions. And the company's capital allocation was not aligned with where its competitive advantage actually lived.
"If you look at the effect Lightbox had on lab-grown diamond prices, I would argue it was the first successful attempt to demonstrate the difference between lab-grown and natural."
Al Cook, De Beers CEO, JCK, May 2025
The Origins Strategy: Six Pillars
Cook announced the Origins strategy in May 2024. It is a six-part restructuring of De Beers' operations and positioning built around a single central thesis: lab-grown and natural diamonds will bifurcate into two permanently separate product categories, with natural commanding a sustained premium over lab-grown.
Concentrate investment in De Beers' African mining operations. Pause the Gahcho Kue expansion in Canada. Prioritize Botswana, Namibia, and South Africa where De Beers has the strongest competitive position and the highest-quality rough.
Revive generic natural diamond category marketing with the first new beacon program in 16 years. The "Origins" campaign targets emotional differentiation between natural and lab-grown stones, positioning natural as traceable, unique, and formed over billions of years.
Shut down the Lightbox lab-grown diamond brand. Redirect the Gresham, Oregon factory to Element Six for industrial diamond applications. Sell Lightbox inventory and assets to third parties. Announced May 2025, ceasing operations by late 2025.
Withdraw Forevermark from the US market, where it had limited traction against established brands. Concentrate Forevermark resources in India, where the program has stronger consumer recognition and retail penetration.
Build a direct premium polished diamond business using Tracr, De Beers' blockchain traceability platform, to authenticate provenance. Position traceable natural diamonds as a distinct product from both generic natural and lab-grown stones.
Reduce operating costs across De Beers' corporate structure. Streamline the business in preparation for standalone operation as Anglo American's divestment process advances. Target cost reductions to improve EBITDA before any sale or public listing.
The Lightbox Decision
The decision to close Lightbox is the most visible single action of Cook's tenure and the one that most clearly reveals his strategic reasoning. Lightbox was launched in 2018, before Cook joined De Beers, as a market intervention designed to collapse lab-grown diamond prices and position lab-grown as fashion rather than romance. By the time Cook arrived in 2023, the brand had lost $22.3 million in 2022 and was on its way to losing $101.3 million in 2023.
Cook's public position on Lightbox deserves careful reading. He did not say it failed. He said it "kind of" achieved its goals. He argued that Lightbox helped drive lab-grown prices down 90%, which is what it was designed to do. The question of whether lab-grown prices would have collapsed anyway, driven by independent Chinese and Indian CVD producers who were not influenced by Lightbox's pricing strategy, is one Cook does not address directly.
What is clear is that Cook concluded the ongoing cost of operating Lightbox was not justified by any continuing strategic benefit. The price collapse had already occurred. The brand had failed to contain lab-grown diamonds in the fashion category. And the losses were mounting at a rate that could not be sustained in the context of De Beers' broader financial position.
Closing Lightbox is not just a financial decision. It is a strategic declaration. De Beers is signaling that it no longer believes there is a viable business in competing directly with lab-grown diamonds on price. The company is betting everything on natural diamond premiumization through storytelling, traceability, and origin authenticity. If that bet succeeds, De Beers survives as a premium natural diamond company. If it fails, De Beers becomes a mining operation selling rough at declining margins to a shrinking market of holdout natural diamond retailers.
The 2026 Sale Process
Anglo American's decision to divest De Beers was announced in 2024 as part of a broader portfolio simplification driven by shareholder pressure. Anglo American CEO Duncan Wanblad stated that De Beers would be "fully set up as a standalone business" to make sure it would not be "impacting as a drag in any way, shape or form" on Anglo American's broader performance.
As of April 2026, the sale process has not produced a confirmed buyer. Potential acquirers have included sovereign wealth funds from Gulf states, existing diamond mining conglomerates, and private equity vehicles. The absence of a confirmed transaction after two years reflects a fundamental valuation problem: the premium that De Beers' natural diamond business commands is eroding in real time, and any buyer must price not just what De Beers is worth today but what it will be worth in five and ten years as lab-grown diamonds continue to take share in the bridal and fashion categories.
Cook is managing a sale process while simultaneously trying to execute a strategic transformation. The two objectives are not always compatible. Actions that make strategic sense for a long-term standalone De Beers may reduce short-term EBITDA, making the business harder to sell at a premium valuation. Actions that optimize the business for a near-term sale may compromise the Origins strategy's long-term logic.
Cook appointed CEO
First De Beers CEO from oil and gas. Former BP and Equinor executive. MA Natural Sciences, Cambridge. Inherits Lightbox losses, declining rough prices, and Anglo American restructuring pressure.
Origins strategy announced
Six-pillar restructuring plan. Capital concentration in Africa. New beacon marketing campaign. Lightbox production halt announced. Forevermark US withdrawal. Tracr premium polished business. Cost restructuring.
Anglo American divestment announced
Anglo American initiates formal process to sell or demerge De Beers. Cook must simultaneously execute Origins and manage a sale process. No confirmed buyer as of April 2026.
Lightbox closure announced
Seven years. $90 million factory. $101.3 million loss in 2023 alone. Cook tells JCK the brand "kind of" achieved its goals. Tells The New York Times lab-grown prices fell 90% and predecessors would say it worked. Brand ceases operations.
Sale process ongoing. No confirmed buyer.
$6.8 billion in cumulative writedowns. $511 million EBITDA loss in 2025. Origins strategy in execution. Cook continues as CEO while Anglo American runs the divestment process. The bet on bifurcation is the central question the market has not yet answered.
What It Means for Buyers
Al Cook's strategy is built on a thesis that matters to every buyer considering a diamond purchase in 2026: that natural and lab-grown diamonds will permanently separate into two distinct categories, with natural commanding a premium based on origin, rarity, and cultural significance.
If Cook is right, the current moment is a window. Lab-grown diamonds are at historically low prices. Natural diamonds have not yet recovered their premium positioning. A buyer who values natural diamonds for their geological authenticity and potential long-term value retention can access them at relatively lower premiums over lab-grown than will exist if the bifurcation thesis succeeds.
If Cook is wrong, and lab-grown diamonds continue to take share across all categories including the premium end, then the case for paying a natural diamond premium weakens further over time. In that scenario, a buyer purchasing a lab-grown diamond today at current prices is accessing the category at its most competitive point relative to natural.
Draco Diamond's position is straightforward. Lab-grown diamonds are chemically identical to natural diamonds. The price gap is 80 to 90% at equivalent specifications. A 2ct IGI-certified engagement ring at Draco Diamond starts from $1,801 CAD. The equivalent natural diamond specification retails for $15,000 to $25,000 CAD. The buyer decides what the difference in origin is worth to them.
Frequently Asked Questions
Al Cook is the Chief Executive Officer of De Beers Group, appointed February 2023. He holds an MA in Natural Sciences from Cambridge University and spent approximately 20 years at BP and seven years at Equinor before joining the diamond industry. He is the first De Beers CEO from the oil and gas sector. He introduced the Origins strategy in May 2024 and announced the closure of Lightbox in May 2025.
Origins is Al Cook's six-part restructuring plan announced in May 2024. The pillars are: concentrate capital in Africa; revive natural diamond category marketing with a new beacon campaign; close Lightbox; withdraw Forevermark from the US; build a premium polished diamond business using Tracr traceability; and restructure costs. The strategy rests on the thesis that lab-grown and natural diamonds will bifurcate into two permanently separate product categories, with natural commanding a sustained premium.
Anglo American initiated a formal process to sell or demerge De Beers in 2024. As of April 2026, no confirmed buyer has emerged. The absence of a transaction after two years reflects the difficulty of valuing a company whose primary asset is a premium that lab-grown diamonds are materially eroding. Cook is managing the sale process while simultaneously executing Origins, two objectives that are not always compatible.
De Beers has recorded $6.8 billion in cumulative writedowns across three years, posted a $511 million EBITDA loss in 2025, shut down Lightbox after a $101.3 million operating loss in 2023, and withdrawn Forevermark from the US market. Cook argues these are deliberate strategic decisions under Origins rather than symptoms of unmanaged decline. The market has not yet confirmed which reading is correct.
Cook has consistently positioned lab-grown and natural diamonds as separate and increasingly divergent categories. He has argued that the 90% decline in lab-grown wholesale prices since 2018 demonstrates that the categories are separating, with lab-grown trending toward commoditization and natural retaining premiumization potential. When asked about Lightbox's success, he told The New York Times: "Kind of." He told JCK that if you look at Lightbox's effect on lab-grown prices, he would argue it was the first successful attempt to demonstrate the difference between lab-grown and natural.
